PaleyFest10: Curb Your Enthusiasm

 

We wanted to attend one event at this year's Paley Fest and chose CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. We went the Goldstar route and sat in the nosebleeds. The Saban (formerly Wilshire) Theater is still beautiful. Last time I went to a play at this theater, I saw Barbara Streisand entering the Women's room. At this moment, I don't remember the title of the play.

Tonight, the balcony crowd liked to talk to the screen. I sat next to two goofy guys who thought they were at CURB JEOPARDY, shouting episode titles during the clips montage. While the actors answered the moderator's questions, many people in the balcony let everyone else know, by their vocalizations, that they were in on the joke. The woman sitting next to my wife had a hearing problem and kept asking her what somebody on stage had just said. Goldstar.

The moderator was bland. Larry was distant, but informative and patient. Jeff showed off his new slimmer physique and demonstrated his peculiar giggle. Cheryl was gorgeous. Susie was polite. Richard Lewis appeared stoned, rambling on and on. The night's funniest moments, however, came from Bob Einstein's deadpan humor. I particularly enjoyed when he told a British audience member asking a question, "Please stop using that annoying fake accent." Bob Einstein's stone face rivals Buster's.

I enjoyed the show and I'm glad we went, but I would have rather watched this on television, or even YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comedian John Belushi's Chateau Overdose

John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was a comedian, actor, and musician notable for his work on Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon's Animal House, and The Blues Brothers. He was the older brother of James Belushi.

Early life

John Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Agnes Belushi (née Samaras), a cashier and first-generation Albanian-American, and Adam Belushi (b. 1919), an Albanian immigrant and restaurant operator who left his native village, Qytezë, in 1934 at the age of sixteen.[2][3][4][5] The family's name at the time of immigration was Bellios, or Belliors.[5] Belushi was raised in the Albanian Orthodox church[6] and grew up outside Chicago in Wheaton with a brother Jim, five-and-a-half years his junior. He attended Wheaton Central High School, where he met his future wife, Judy Jacklin, and was a middle linebacker for the school's football team. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and the College of DuPage near Chicago.

Career

Belushi's first big break as a comedian occurred in 1971, when he joined The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. Thanks to a caricature of singer Joe Cocker's intense and jerky stage presence, he was cast in National Lampoon's Lemmings, a parody of Woodstock, which played Off-Broadway in 1972 and also showcased future Saturday Night Live (SNL) performers Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest.

From 1973 to 1975, National Lampoon Inc. aired The National Lampoon Radio Hour, a half-hour comedy program syndicated across the country on approximately 600 stations. When original director Michael O'Donoghue quit in 1974, Belushi took over the reins until the show was canceled. Other players on the show included future SNL regulars Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray and Chevy Chase. Belushi married Judy Jacklin (Judy Pisano), an associate producer of The Radio Hour. A number of comic segments first performed on The Radio Hour would be translated into SNL sketches in the show's early seasons.

1975-1979

Belushi achieved national fame for his work on Saturday Night Live, which he joined as an original cast member in 1975. Between seasons of the show, he made one of his best-known movies, Animal House. As several Belushi biographies have noted, on John's 30th birthday (in 1979), he had the number one film in the U.S. (Animal House), the number one album in the U.S. (The Blues Brothers: Briefcase Full of Blues) and Saturday Night Live was the highest-rated late night television program. In the toga party scene in the basement of the fraternity house in Animal House, the uncredited coed dancing with Bluto (Belushi) is his wife. While filming Animal House, Belushi made an appearance at Ithaca College in 1976. When introduced, he came onstage with a chainsaw and cut up the podium.

When interviewed for retrospectives on John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd told stories of John often finishing SNL rehearsals, shows or film shoots and, exhausted, simply walking unannounced into nearby homes of friends or strangers, scrounging around for food and often falling asleep, unable to be located for the following day's work. This was the impetus for the SNL horror-spoof sketch "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave," in which Belushi torments a couple (played by Jane Curtin and Bill Murray) in their home looking for snacks, newspapers and magazines to read, and taking control of their television. SNL also featured a short film by writer Tom Schiller called "Don't Look Back In Anger," where Belushi playing himself as an old man, visits the graves of his now-former cast-members, the last to survive. Ironically, Belushi was the first SNL cast member to die.

Belushi left Saturday Night Live in 1979 to pursue a film career. Belushi would make four more movies; three of them, 1941, Neighbors, and most notably The Blues Brothers were made with fellow SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd.

Other movie projects

Dan Aykroyd wrote the roles of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters and Emmett Fitz-Hume in Spies Like Us with Belushi in mind, and the roles were actually played by Belushi's former SNL castmates Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, respectively. Aykroyd used to joke that the green ghost Slimer in Ghostbusters was "the ghost of John Belushi", given that he had a similar party animal personality.

Released in September 1981, the romantic comedy Continental Divide starred Belushi as Chicago home town hero writer Ernie Souchack who gets put on assignment researching a scientist studying birds of prey in the remote rocky mountains. Belushi's character "Ernie Souchak" was loosely based on popular, now deceased Chicago columnist Mike Royko.

At the time of his death, Belushi was pursuing several movie projects, including Noble Rot, an adaptation of a script by former The Mary Tyler Moore Show writer/producer Jay Sandrich entitled Sweet Deception; noble rot is a benevolent fungus that can infect wine grapes on the vine, helping to produce high quality sweet wines. Belushi was rewriting the script with former Saturday Night Live colleague Don Novello.

Personal life

The "College" sweatshirt Belushi wore in National Lampoon's Animal House was purchased in Carbondale, Illinois, when his brother, Jim, was a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.[7]

According to writer/actor Tim Kazurinsky in the book Live From New York, mentor and close friend Belushi was instrumental in getting fellow Second City alumnus Kazurinsky onto Saturday Night Live in 1981. But during his run on the show, Kazurinsky became very stressed out by its demands. He later called Belushi and said that he needed a ride to the airport because he was quitting and moving back to Chicago. Belushi and his wife picked him up but refused to bring him to the airport, at which Belushi told Kazurinsky that the show's atmosphere can get bad, but that he still had access to major broadcasting airwaves. Instead, Belushi took the performer to a psychiatrist whom he saw for a year, while staying with the show during his run.

It was Belushi who recruited the band Fear and brought them to Cherokee Studios to record songs for the soundtrack of Neighbors, a film he and Aykroyd were starring in. Music producing partners Steve Cropper and Bruce Robb remember recording the music, but nobody knows exactly what happened with the final soundtrack, which was ultimately replaced in the film by a traditional movie score. Cherokee Studios was a regular haunt for the original Blues Brothers back in the early days of the band. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd became fixtures at the recording studio, while fellow Blues Brother and guitar player Steve Cropper called Cherokee his producing home. Whenever they needed a bass player, they were joined by another Blues Brother, Donald "Duck" Dunn. During this time, Cropper along with producing partner and Cherokee owner Bruce Robb worked on a number of music projects with the two comedian/musicians, the band Fear and later Aykroyd's movie "Dragnet." "What can I say? John was excessively talented, and I guess you could say he sort of lived life 'excessively.' I think what happened to John had a sobering effect on a lot of people, me included," said music producer Bruce Robb.

Belushi was generous to his friends and family, often lending them money when they asked. He bought his father a ranch near San Diego, and helped set up his old friends in Chicago with their own businesses. He helped his brother Jim find a spot at Second City, where he himself acted in the early days of his career. His generous side also showed during his time in the Blues Brothers; he often played songs by blues artists he thought could use the money from the royalties.
Death

On March 5, 1982, Belushi was found dead in his room at Bungalow #3 of the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.[8] The cause of death was a speedball, a combined injection of cocaine and heroin. On the night of his death, he was visited separately by friends Robin Williams (at the height of his own drug exploits)[9] and Robert De Niro,[10] each of whom left the premises, leaving Belushi in the company of assorted others, including Cathy Smith. His death was investigated by forensic pathologist Dr. Ryan Norris among others, and while the findings were disputed, it was officially ruled a drug-related accident.
Two months later, Smith admitted in an interview with the National Enquirer that she had been with Belushi the night of his death and had given him the fatal speedball shot. After the appearance of the article "I Killed Belushi" in the Enquirer edition of June 29, 1982, the case was reopened. Smith was extradited from Toronto, arrested and charged with first-degree murder. A plea bargain arrangement reduced the charges to involuntary manslaughter, and she served 15 months in prison[11].

In one of Belushi's last TV appearances, he filmed a cameo for the comedy series Police Squad!. At the suggestion of the show's producer, Robert K. Weiss, Belushi was filmed, face down in a swimming pool, dead. The footage was part of a running gag where the episode's guest-star would not survive past the opening credit sequence without meeting some gruesome end. Also, as noted in one of the commentary tracks on the DVD, John nearly drowned during the filming of the scene. The scene never aired.

Belushi and his friend Dan Aykroyd were slated to present the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 54th Academy Awards, an event held less than four weeks after his death. Aykroyd presented the award alone, commenting on the stage "My partner would have loved to have been here to present this award, given that he was something of a visual effect himself."

Belushi is interred in Abel's Hill Cemetery on Martha's Vineyard Chilmark, Massachusetts. His tombstone reads "I may be gone, but Rock and Roll lives on." His gravestone is not above his body. It was moved after operators of the cemetery had found many signs of vandalism and rowdiness where his body lies. He also has a cenotaph at Elmwood Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois.

Tributes

John Belushi's life is detailed in the 1985 biography Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi by Bob Woodward. Many friends and relatives of Belushi, including his wife Judy, Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi, agreed to be interviewed at length for the book, but later felt the final product was exploitative and not representative of the John Belushi they knew. The book was later adapted into a feature film in which Belushi was played by Michael Chiklis. Belushi's friends and family boycotted the film, which proved to be critical and caused the movie to be a box-office flop.

Belushi was portrayed by actors Eric Siegel in Gilda Radner: It's Always Something, Tyler Labine in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (which also features his friendship with Robin Williams), and Michael Chiklis in Wired.

His widow later remarried and is now Judith Belushi Pisano. Her biography (with co-biographer Tanner Colby) of John, Belushi: A Biography is a collection of first-person interviews and photographs, and was published in 2005.

On April 1, 2004, 22 years after his death, Belushi was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, after a ten-year lobby by James Belushi and Judith Belushi Pisano. Among those present at the ceremony were Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Tom Arnold.

In 2006, Biography Channel aired the "John Belushi" episode of Final 24, a documentary following Belushi in the last 24 hours leading to his death.

Filmography

Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle (1975) (voice) (1979 American dubbed version)
Animal House (1978)
The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978)
Goin' South (1978)
Old Boyfriends (1979)
1941 (1979)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Continental Divide (1981)
Neighbors (1981)

SNL characters and impersonations

Recurring characters

Samurai Futaba
Captain Ned, one of Miles Cowperthwaite's cronies
Jacob Papageorge alias 'Joliet' Jake Blues, from the Blues Brothers
Jeff Widette, from the Widettes
Kevin (from The Mall sketches)
Kuldorth (from The Coneheads)
Larry Farber (one half of the Farber couple [the wife, Bobbi, was played by Gilda Radner])
Lowell Brock, from the H&L Brock commercials
Matt Cooper, from the Land Shark sketches
Pete, from the Olympia Cafe
Steve Beshekas (who was in real life a good friend of Belushi's since community college)
Frank Leary, one of St. Mickey's Knights of Columbus

Celebrity impersonations

Al Hirt
Babe Ruth
Bert Lance
Cesar Romero
Dino De Laurentiis
Ed Ames
Ed Asner
Elizabeth Taylor
Elvis Presley
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Fred Silverman
George Wallace
Henry Kissinger
Hermann Göring
Jack Kerouac
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jimmy Hoffa
Joe Cocker
John Lennon
Julia Child
Leonid Brezhnev
Ludwig van Beethoven
Marlon Brando
Menachim Begin
Richard Daley
Robert Blake
Roy Orbison
Sam Peckinpah
Sanjay Gandhi
Steve Rubell
Sun Myung Moon
Tip O'Neill
Truman Capote
Vasiliy Alekseyev
William Shatner
Woody Hayes
Yasser Arafat
References

1.^ It’s The Artie Talkin’ - DIMP interviews Artie Lange from dvdinmypants.com
2.^ Belushi's SNL Bio from NBC.com
3.^ John Belushi Biography (1949-1982) from filmreference.com
4.^ Books Of The Times; Close-Up Of John Belushi from the New York Times
5.^ They Were Belushis (or Blues Brothers) from genealogywise.com
6.^ The religion of John Belushi, actor, comedian from adherents.com
7.^ The party's over: Some say SIUC has finally shed rowdy school image, a May 8, 2006 article from The Southern Illinoisan
8.^ "John Belushi, Manic Comic of TV and Films Dies.". New York Times. "John Belushi, the manic, rotund comedian whose outrageous antics and spastic impersonations on the Saturday Night Live television show propelled him to stardom in the 1970's, was found dead yesterday in a rented bungalow in Hollywood, where he had launched a film career in recent years. The 33-year-old actor ..."
9.^ Robin Williams, television biography from the Biography Channel, 7/7/06.
10.^ John Belushi Dies at the Chateau Marmont from franksreelreviews.com
11.^ Figure in John Belushi Case Freed From California Prison - New York Times

-- wiki

If you stop by the Chateau Marmont, don't expect to be able to visit the scene of Belushi's demise - unless you plan on staying the night. Belushi was riding a crest of popularity in 1982, and had more than enough money to hole up in one of the hotel's exclusive bungalows, which are accessible only to guests holding room keys.

But if you slip around behind the hotel and walk the sidewalk along Monteel Road, you can peer down into the area of the tree-shaded bungalows. Belushi's last binge occurred either in Bungalow 3 or Bungalow 2 - there seems to be an equal number of contentions for each locale.

-- The Dark Side of Hollywood - LA Daily News

Walkabout: Bullwinkle on the Sunset Strip

Always been a big fan of Bullwinkle.

I'd like to read a paper analyzing Bullwinkle and Goofy.

Bullwinkle, Goofy, and Barney Rubble.

Bullwinkle, Goofy, Barney Rubble, and Baba Looey.

They are some of the second bananas of early TV animation.

Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short, the BLACK DAHLIA

Mia Kirshner (born January 25, 1975) is a Canadian actress who works in movies and television series. She is best known for her portrayal of Jenny Schecter on Showtime's hit television drama series, The L Word, a show about the lives of a group of lesbians and bisexuals living in West Hollywood, California.

Early life

Kirshner was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Etti, a teacher, and Sheldon Kirshner, a journalist who writes for The Canadian Jewish News. [1] Kirshner is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors; [2] her father was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany in 1946 and met Kirshner's mother, a Bulgarian Jewish refugee, in Israel. [2] Kirshner had a middle class upbringing[3] and studied Russian literature and 20th-century movie industry at McGill University in Montreal. Her little sister, Lauren Kirshner, a writer, was involved in the I Live Here project.[4]

Career

In 1993, Kirshner played a dominatrix in Denys Arcand's Love and Human Remains and won a Genie nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. The following year, she starred in Atom Egoyan's Exotica. In 1996, she appeared in The Crow: City of Angels.

Kirshner also appeared in the first three episodes of 24 as the bisexual assassin Mandy in 2001. She would later reprise the role for the second season's finale and in the latter half of the show's fourth season. Also in 2001, Kirshner played Catherine Wyler, The Cruelest Girl in School, in Not Another Teen Movie. The character is primarily a spoof of Kathryn Merteuil (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) in Cruel Intentions, and was partially based on Mackenzie Siler (played by Anna Paquin) from She's All That. In Marilyn Manson's music video for "Tainted Love", which was featured on the movie's soundtrack, she made a cameo appearance as her character Catherine Wyler.

In 2004, Kirshner was cast as author Jenny Schecter, a main character in the drama series The L Word. She remained with the show for all of the show's six seasons through 2009.[5]

In 2006, she starred in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia in which she plays the young aspiring actress, Elizabeth Short, who was mysteriously mutilated and murdered in 1947.

Kirshner will star in 30 Days of Night: Dark Days which began filming in the fall of 2009[6] and in late December 2009 earned the role of Isobel Saltzman in The Vampire Diaries.[7][8]

Philanthropy

In October 2008, after 7 years in production[9], Kirshner published the book I Live Here,[10] which she co-produced with ex-Adbusters staffers Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons,[11] as well as writer James MacKinnon. In the book, four different groups of women and children refugees from places such as Chechnya, Juárez, Burma and Malawi tell their life stories. The book features original material from well-known comic and graphic artists including Joe Sacco and Phoebe Gloeckner. It was published in the U.S. by Random House/Pantheon. It was supported logistically by Amnesty International, which will receive proceeds from the book. After the release of the book, the Center for International Studies at MIT invited Kirshner to run a 4-week course on I Live Here in January 2009. [12]

In popular culture

Kirshner was ranked #43 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002.[13] She and Beverly Polcyn were nominated for Best Kiss at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards for Not Another Teen Movie.[14]

Credits

Films

Love and Human Remains (1993) - Benita
Cadillac Girls (1993) - Page
Exotica (1994) - Christina
Murder in the First (1995) - Adult Rosetta Young
The Crow: City of Angels (1996) - Sarah
Anna Karenina (1997) - as Kitty
Mad City (1997) - Laurie Callahan
Out of the Cold (1999) - Deborah Berkowitz
Saturn (Speed of Life, DVD title) (1999) - Sarah[15]
Dark Summer (2000) - Dominique Denright
Cowboys and Angels (2000) - Candice
Not Another Teen Movie (2001) - Catherine Wyler
According to Spencer (2001) - Melora
Century Hotel (2001) - Dominique
Now and Forever (2002) - Angela Wilson
New Best Friend (2002) - Alicia Campbell
Party Monster (2003) - Natasha Gatien
The Iris Effect (2004) - Rebecca
The Black Dahlia (2006) - Elizabeth Short
Miss Conception (2008) - Clem

Television

War of the Worlds (1989)
Dracula: The Series (1990) - Sophie Metternich
Tropical Heat-Sweating Bullets (1991-1992) Cathy Paige
Are You Afraid of the Dark: Tale of the Hungry Hounds (1992) - Pam
Johnny's Girl (1995) - Amy
Wolf Lake (2001) - Ruby Wilder/Ruby Cates
24 (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005) - Mandy
The L Word (2005-2009) - Jenny Schecter
They Come Back (2007) - Faith Hardy
The Cleaner (2009) - April May
CSI:NY (2009) - Deborah Carter
The Vampire Diaries (2010) - Isobel Saltzman

References

1.^ "Mia Kirshner surprised by character in 'Mad City' film". News Tribune. 1997-11-15.
2.^ Mia Kirshner basks in an erotic mystery
3.^ Aurthur, Kate (2008-10-19). "Mia Kirshner backs up her commitment". Los Angeles Times.
4.^ "'Give yourself permission to write'". the Varsity (University of Toronto). 2009-09-24.
5.^ [ http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/12/21/vampire-diaries-hires-mia-kirshner/ Exclusive: 'Vampire Diaries' lures 'L Word' babe Mia Kirshner]
6.^ BD's Got Your '30 Days of Night: Dark Days' Casting!
7.^ Mia Kirshner and Two Others Join The Vampire Diaries
8.^ TV: Mia Kirshner Becomes Regular on 'Vampire Diaries'
9.^ "Tavis Smiley Show". Tavis Smiley Show - Mia Kirshner - December 16, 2008.
10.^ I Live Here Foundation
11.^ THE GOGGLES
12.^ "MIT CIS: IAP 2009, I Live Here, Mia Kirshner". IAP COURSE: I Live Here—A Human Rights Multimedia Project.
13.^ "FreeJose.com". Maxim Magazine Hot 100 Women of 2002.
14.^ "About.com". Best Kiss nomination, 2002 MTV Movie Awards.
15.^ http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0165461/fullcredits#cast

-- wiki

Ben 10 Christmas in Westwood

Ben 10 is an American animated series created by "Man of Action" (a group consisting of Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Steven T. Seagle), and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. The pilot episode aired on December 27, 2005, as part of a sneak peek of Cartoon Network's Saturday morning lineup. The second episode was shown as a special on Cartoon Network's Fridays on January 13, 2006. The final regular episode aired on April 15, 2008. The theme song for the show was written by Andy Sturmer and sung by Moxy. In April 2008, Ben 10 was succeeded by Ben 10: Alien Force. The next installment of the Ben 10 series will be titled Ben 10: Evolution.

Karl Malden's Westwood Tombstone

 

 

Jack Cassidy Killed By A Lone Cigarette

John Joseph Edward “JACK” CASSIDY

March 5, 1927 – December 12, 1976

John Joseph Edward “Jack” Cassidy was an American actor of stage, film and screen. His frequent professional persona was that of an urbane, super-confident egotist with a dramatic flair, much in the manner of Broadway actor Frank Fay. Cassidy perfected this character to such an extent that he was cast as the legendary John Barrymore in the feature film W.C. Fields and Me. The role of the vain, shallow, buffoon-like newsman Ted Baxter on TV's The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977) was written with Cassidy in mind. However, Cassidy turned down the role, feeling that it was not right for him, and the part went to Ted Knight. Cassidy later appeared as a guest star in a 1971 episode as Ted's highly competitive and equally egocentric brother, Hal.

In 1976, Cassidy was living alone in an apartment in West Hollywood, California. Some time in the early morning hours of December 12, 1976, he lit a cigarette and fell asleep or passed out on a couch, which then caught fire and spread throughout the apartment. His body was found on the floor, as if he had been trying to crawl to the sliding glass doors but was overcome by smoke inhalation. In an odd coincidence, he had starred in a 1971 episode of the TV series Night Gallery, called The Last Laurel, in which he played a character who accidentally killed himself while sleeping.

-- wiki

I particularly enjoyed JACK CASSIDY's performance in two of my favorite episodes of COLUMBO. In one, he plays a mystery writer who kills his partner. In another, he plays a former SS Nazi hiding as a magician. Jack Cassidy chewed up the scenery in every scene he was ever in. That's what we loved about him. That was the secret of his magic.

George Reeves Death: Suicide, Murder or Accident?

Obviously, SUPERMAN meant a lot to me. I was too young to see the shows during the first run. I wasn't even born when the show began. My 1960s generation watched the shows in syndication. We knew SUPERMAN was dead already. I fondly remember asking my mother how the actor who played SUPERMAN died. She told me he went insane on drugs and thought he really was SUPERMAN, so he jumped out a window and killed himself. My mother, god bless her, got it wrong. She believed the legend and didn't care to know the truth. Years later I learned how GEORGE REEVES really died. I didn't and don't blame my mother, it wasn't until years later than she began to obsessively read the gossip magazines. She was a 1960s housewife and did the best JUNE CLEAVER she could.

Even as I got older and stopped wearing the aging Halloween costume, but continued to read the comic books, SUPERMAN helped me compass my morality. Like Jesus Christ, SUPERMAN was a god incarnate who would rescue us if we fell. He'd be there if our parents, friends and society weren't around. He taught us readers more about good and evil than the church or our parents.

Every comic book reader creates a hierarchy of superheroes. SUPERMAN stood at the pinacle of my superhero pyramid. BATMAN dominated the second level down. Marvel's DAREDEVIL appealed to my concern for the handicapped. THE WATCHER I dug for its intelligence, but the comic book didn't last long. I enjoyed THE FANTASTIC FOUR, but found it comparable to a less camp LOST IN SPACE. I read a lot of SPIDERMAN, although most of my Marvel comics were stolen years ago. I still have most of my DC's however. The FLASH could be cool. I read some GREEN LANTERN. SUPERBOY, SUPERGIRL, LOIS LANE, and LANA LANG comic books remain in my collection. I also have a lot of ARCHIE comics. Prepubescent sexual visual stimulation, I suppose. My collection also includes a lot of horror comics and magazines. In addition to my childhood comic book collection, I think my storage unit still contains my entire MAD MAGAZINE and NATIONAL LAMPOON MAGAZINE collection. Any buyers out there? I'll give you a super-price and a bat-price all in one.

Like the result one gets when first impressions don't match expectations, the first time I watched HOLLYWOODLAND, I felt disappointed. I hadn't been a big fan of Ben Affleck, even in his barely watchable DAREDEVIL movie. The other actors of note, I felt, were wasted in this bio pic bereft of a vision. Then, I watched it again, and again, and again. I even watched it again. Combined with his appearances on political talk shows and this on target performance as GEORGE REEVES, BEN AFFLECK has earned a devoted fan. I now know why the other actors contributed to this mini-masterpiece. Like I said, Affleck's portrayal of GEORGE REEVES is flawless. Affleck is truly transformed into another person. During my first viewing, ADRIAN BRODY's character served as an annoying distraction to the story I wanted to see. I wanted to see a bio pic on GEORGE REEVES and I didn't realize that that's exactly what I had been watching. We witness the life of Reeves through the investigation of the Brody character. Was I expecting some divine revelation or the writer/director's personal opinion on how Reeves was killed? After I changed my narrow expectations, I began to enjoy and understand the film better. Best of all, the film actually summarizes the three possibilites: suicide, murder or accident, without sounding like a History Channel documentary. I, like the film, prefer the "accident" theory. But what 1960s kid wanted to think SUPERMAN killed himself? At least I didn't buy it when my mother told me he jumped out a window.

GEORGE REEVES
January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959

According to the Los Angeles Police Department report, between approximately 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. on June 16, 1959, George Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head in the upstairs bedroom of his Benedict Canyon home. He was 45 years old.

Police arrived within the hour. Present in the house at the time of death were Leonore Lemmon, William Bliss, writer Robert Condon, and Carol Van Ronkel, who lived a few blocks away with her husband, screenwriter Rip Van Ronkel.

According to all the witnesses, Lemmon and Reeves had been dining and drinking earlier in the evening in the company of writer Condon, who was ghostwriting an autobiography of prizefighter Archie Moore. Reeves and Lemmon argued at the restaurant and the trio returned home. However, Lemmon stated in interviews with Reeves's biographer Jim Beaver that she and Reeves had not accompanied friends dining and drinking, but to wrestling matches. Contemporary news items indicate that Reeves's friend Gene LeBell was wrestling that night—yet LeBell's own recollections are that he did not see Reeves after a workout session earlier in the day. In any event, Reeves went to bed, but some time near midnight, an impromptu party began when Bliss and Carol Van Ronkel arrived. Reeves angrily came downstairs and complained about the noise. After blowing off steam, he stayed with the guests for a while, had a drink, then retired upstairs again in a bad mood.

The house guests later heard a single gunshot. Bliss ran into Reeves's bedroom and found George Reeves dead, lying across his bed, naked and face-up, his feet on the floor. This position has been attributed to Reeves sitting on the edge of the bed when he shot himself, after which his body fell back on the bed and the 9mm Luger pistol fell between his feet.

Statements made to police and the press essentially agree. Neither Lemmon nor the other witnesses made any apology for their delay in calling the police after hearing the gunshot, but the shock of the death, the lateness of the hour, and their state of intoxication were given as reasons for the delay. Police said that all of the witnesses present were extremely inebriated, and that their coherent stories were very difficult to obtain.

In contemporary news articles, Lemmon attributed Reeves's apparent suicide to depression caused by his "failed career" and inability to find more work. The police report states, "[Reeves was]... depressed because he couldn't get the sort of parts he wanted." Newspapers and wire-service reports frequently misquoted LAPD Sergeant V.A. Peterson, as quoting Lemmon: "Miss Lemmon blurted, 'He's probably going to go shoot himself.' A noise was heard upstairs. She continued, 'He's opening a drawer to get the gun.' A shot was heard. 'See, I told you so.'"' However, this statement may have been embellished by journalists. Lemmon and her friends were downstairs at the time of the shot with music playing. It would be nearly impossible to hear a drawer opening in the upstairs bedroom. Lemmon later claimed that she'd never said anything so specific, but rather had made an offhand remark along the lines of "Oh, he'll probably go shoot himself now."

Witness statements and examination of the crime scene led to the conclusion that the death was self-inflicted. A more extensive official inquiry concluded that the death was indeed suicide.

Hollywoodland dramatizes the investigation of Reeves's death. The movie stars Ben Affleck as Reeves and Adrien Brody as fictional investigator Louis Simo, suggested by real-life detective Milo Speriglio. The movie shows three versions of his death: killed semi-accidentally by Lemmon, murdered by an unnamed hitman under orders from Eddie Mannix, and finally, suicide.

-- wiki

Sal Mineo on I'VE GOT A SECRET - You Tube

Thanks to salmineovideos for the video.

Sharon Tate Murder CBS 1969 Newscast - You Tube

Thanks to bretg78 for the video.

Charmaine Yoest Debates Heidi Fleiss - You Tube

Thanks to johnyoest for the video.

DRAGNET staring Jack Webb - You Tube

Thanks to ohiofan1989 for the video.

Charles "Twilight Zone" Beaumont at San Fernando Mission Cemetery

Charles Beaumont
San Fernando Mission Cemetery

The Simpsons Appear on Olympic Eastbound

Pam Anderson is All Over West L.A.

Leave It To Barbara, Billingsley That Is - West L.A.

Barbara Billingsley - wiki

Barbara Billinglsey - imdb

Billingsley's Restaurant

Showtime Bus - Century City

Denise Richards and The Death of Ignorance - West L.A.

MTM and More on Sunset Boulevard - West Hollywood